Ongoing art improvements

[Viquire]

During Q and A it was stated that a new system has been found to greatly speed the delivery of improved art to the players. Bravo!

The old system, was four years out from delivering newly created High Resolution tile sets. The new systems is weeks, maybe months from delivering sharpened and refined art as it currently exists.

In conjunction with the information that our player base is now about fifty/fifty CC and EC, and in light of the fact that Pinco is now officially on board with regards to UI, what does this mean for the future of both clients?

And, can we discuss the potential limitations of sharpening and enhancing, verses the creation of new (not different) high resolution art, and the long term merits of each system?

Also, did we stop the creation of new art? Or are we refining in house, while creating via contract?

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

While my final decision is still about 6 months or so off between UO and Shroud of the Avatar, and even with UO having a rather large head start, as a horse race between the development of SotA and the finishing of the EC (namely High Resolution Artwork and a better EC overall), SotA has jumped into the lead for my interest, time, and funding. It has me wondering if this is all coming "too little too late" (again at least for ME, not attempting to speak for anyone else here).

The immediate positive to an auto-enhance system is that they can use the existing art as it has been apparently proven than a significant number of remaining UO players can't handle even the smallest artwork changes much less anything on a large scale. Is that a mean thing to say? Probably. Is it an inciteful comment directed at a significant number of UO players/ UHall posters? Possibly. It is true? Obviously, given the "client wars". The other of course being the time and manpower compared to the current size of the UO team (assuming that EVERY UO dev was on camera).

The downside is mainly dependent on the new native resolution size, client "footprint" to download and install, and how well the newer graphics scale ingame via the zoom feature. (It is STILL odd to me that zoomed in graphics in UI spaces via Pinco's UI show smoother and more detailed outputs than the same object in the game world which ends up being pixelated and distorted)

As of now, I wait and watch to see what happens and when.

 

[Dot_Warner]

I'd really like to see some examples of the redone art before they get too far along in this mystery process.

At one time they thought that the KR graphics were superior, I'd hate to see that debacle repeated.

 

[Winter]

I'd really like to see some examples of the redone art before they get too far along in this mystery process.

At one time they thought that the KR graphics were superior, I'd hate to see that debacle repeated.

They were superior for some of us - and others, not so much. That just goes to further prove Dermott's points.

No matter what the developers change, someone, somewhere, will complain about it.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Most of the world art was fine, superior to the original. I liked the thicker walls and house addons that matched eachother better.

The item art, however, sucked massively. Many things were so distorted or poorly done that you couldn't tell what they were.

Mobs were hit and miss, and still are.

 

[G.v.P]

While my final decision is still about 6 months or so off between UO and Shroud of the Avatar, and even with UO having a rather large head start, as a horse race between the development of SotA and the finishing of the EC (namely High Resolution Artwork and a better EC overall), SotA has jumped into the lead for my interest, time, and funding. It has me wondering if this is all coming "too little too late" (again at least for ME, not attempting to speak for anyone else here)..

Well, you should point out it's apples and oranges. SotA is a 3D world. UO is never going to be a 3D world so what I'm kind of hearing is once you go 3D you'll never go back (Everquest model, 1999). That, of course, isn't the case for everyone here on Stratics, because we all keep staying for some reason, but hey, 15 years after Everquest made 3D MMORPGs the standard, we're sitting here talking about whether or not the 2D facelift will improve or annoy the art-driven UO community. Wow, right? All that money we're giving UO.

But anyway, based on my experiences with SotA so far, this game is geared heavily in favor of store purchases. When I played it was still rather alpha, no combat, no real quests, nothing to do but open chests and collect things for crafting, but I don't know. I think it has the possibility to be a lot of fun, because it's 3D, but I'm definitely not sure I am sold on my end. I mean, I'm already sold, I spent the money (kind of, actually Gunga did ;P), but hm. We'll see.

Hm. The thing about UO is that if you step back, there really is a TON of content, and the great thing versus the large 3D worlds is we can access almost all of the 2D content within a recall and a short run. Graphically, of course, when I stepped in Star Wars Galaxies and found myself being "questioned" by storm troopers, the expansive world made me feel like I was immersed in a true adventure (I know, I'm a geek). Nothing in UO really makes me feel that way except the opening chest back in the day, the opening "shards" intro with Mondain, the wizard, and maybe building a custom house.

Those are the staples of UO. Customizing a house is so fun that I bet people would pay $10 a month for nothing but a customizable castle. Customizing a house in a 3D game is such a pancake. It's not always easy in UO, but the house tool, the tile sets, the teleporters...they did that system right, from the start, and it only gets better. My gosh do I love UO houses. lol. And the thing that always kills me is the housing the Sims (yep, lol) is pretty good, too. I bought the Sims 3 for $5 when it was on sale, haha, and I'm like why can't EA put out an MMORPG with a Sims 3 housing system? It's like EA has the blueprints down but they just don't know how to do the rest (outside of Dragon Age, but I don't know if any of the latter games allowed house building ;P).

/rant

ok tldr; UO is 2D and won't ever be 3D so it's like ok, make a 3D UO already. 'cause no matter what they do I won't care unless it's 3D (granted I play on a 19" monitor so UO's black border isn't as horrible for me as for some people).